ANN DEMATTEO: As we greet the new light on Easter Sunday

Hopefully, it won't be snowing on the folks from Blessed Sacrament and Ascension churches in Hamden, who are attending sunrise services led by the Rev. Daniel Keefe at Hindinger Farm.

I wish I could be there today, but as you know, I am at Gaylord Specialty Healthcare, a hospital that is getting me on my feet following a plethora of symptoms connected to metastatic breast cancer.

Physical therapy is moving along, but I'm still having trouble getting out of bed.

I have seen many signs of faith since my hospitalizations, and on this Easter Sunday, I would like to list them.

I have met many human angels lately. At a Palm Sunday interfaith service at Gaylord, a man named Ariel made me a palm cross. He said he had wondered why his operation hadn't taken place yet, but he told me that a voice he was sure was that of Jesus Christ's told him that all good things come to those who wait. I knew that those words were the ones I needed to hear that day, as I continue to pray for a closer relationship with Jesus.

The service was conducted by the chaplain at Gaylord, the Rev. Leonard Williams, and volunteer Lou Savenelli, an architect by trade. Unfortunately, this is not the week that Gaylord has a Sunday service.

You know how I appreciate volunteers. I was thrilled the other day to have a conversation with North Haven's Rich Ziemba, president of the North Haven Camera Club. Rich helps bring patients from the gymnasium to their rooms two days a week, and I was one of them. "I enjoy meeting patients and seeing them make progress," Rich said.

Blessings are also coming in the way of less pain in my back connected to my bone cancer. Woo-hoo. One less dose of morphine.

What are your blessings?

At the top of my list are my niece and nephew, Rebecca and John. I love them with all my heart. And kids, auntie is proud of your latest report cards. Good job! A big thank you to their father, Joe, for taking out the cat litter. I wonder how Patches Marie and Smoky Ann feel about their uncle doing this job.

My mother, Ann, is a huge blessing in my life. She does whatever she needs to do to sacrifice for me these days. She is selfless, supportive and brave.

Another Angel: You all know about my quick and good friendship with Lorraine D. Cronin, a longtime benefactor of St. Raphael's Hospital, now the St. Raphael campus of Yale-New Haven Hospital. During a recent visit, she talked of how perplexed she was that she received a thank-you note and "Angel of Thanks" pin from a woman named Colleen who thanked Lorraine "for being with me in the E.R." Colleen's note continued, "I hope that if one day I am offered the opportunity to come to the aid of a stranger in dire need of assistance, I will respond without question and with grace, expecting nothing in return."

Ann DeMatteo is the longtime Hamden and North Haven reporter for the New Haven Register and is the managing editor of The Middletown Press.